1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a case for an electronic device to be provided in an engine room (or a motor room) of a vehicle, and the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Various devices including an engine (or a drive motor) are provided in an engine room of a vehicle. Particularly, in recent years, electric vehicles including hybrid vehicles have been used widely, and the vehicles are equipped with various electronic devices. An inverter for generating an alternating current for driving a drive motor is a typical in-vehicle electronic device. Particularly, as for an important in-vehicle electronic device such as the inverter, various ideas are suggested about how to place the in-vehicle electronic device.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-218837 (JP 2011-218837 A) describes a technique to fix an inverter, which is one type of the in-vehicle electronic device, onto a transmission. Note that the transmission is a general term of any of a motor, an engine, and a gear for transmission of a driving force, or a unit of mechanisms including some of them in combination. Some transmissions for an electric vehicle, particularly, a hybrid vehicle, include three shafts extending in parallel in a vehicle crosswise direction. Such a transmission includes therein two motors and a gear for transmitting outputs of power sources (an engine and the motors) to an axle, and three shafts, in total, including output shafts of the two motors and a main shaft of the gear are placed in parallel. On that account, the three shafts are placed so as to be vertices of a triangle when viewed from a shaft axial direction. When the shafts are placed as such, a top face of a housing of the transmission may be inclined. In the transmission of JP 2011-218837 A, the top face is inclined forward, and an inverter for supplying an alternating-current power to the motor is attached to the top face thus inclined. Here, the in-vehicle electronic device is attached to the transmission by use of a case, which is an outer casing for the electronic device.